Read The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman for Free Online Page B

said.
    “And I got potatoes and corn at my house, too,” he said. “None of them Beero people go’n come round here ’cusing me of stealing free niggers.”
    “We’ll tell him you didn’t steal us,” I said.
    “You ain’t go’n tell him nothing, because you ain’t going nowhere,” he said. “Get off before I have one of my niggers throw you off. Oh, Lucas?”
    A big nigger showed up. Me and Ned got off and sat down on the bank. After everybody else had got on, the ferry left for the other side. I could see it drifting cross the river like a great big house. Looked like everything was go’n end right here on this side the river.
    I looked back at Ned. He was just sitting there with that iron and flint in his hands. Watching the ferry, but not saying a word. I wondered if he was thinking about his mama and his little sister. I was doing everything to keep from thinking about anything but going to Ohio.
    “You all right?” I asked Ned.
    He nodded his head a little.
    Almost sundown the ferry came back. The captain hollered at me and Ned to get moving. We movedback two or three steps and sat down again. The captain and that nigger he called Lucas was still watching us. I thought he was go’n make Lucas come out there and beat us up, but Lucas kept his distance.
    The ferry stayed on this side till dark. They had hung lanterns on it now. Just as it was getting ready to leave for the other side, I heard somebody hollering, “Hold her up. Hold her up.” I saw a man all in black riding toward the landing on a black horse. The man hopped off the horse and handed the reins to one of the niggers on the boat. Then he looked and saw us sitting there.
    “Hoa there?” He said. He said it like he couldn’t make us out too good.
    I stood up so he could see I was a little girl. “Yes sir?” I said.
    “What y’all doing there?” he said.
    “We want cross over,” I said.
    “Come along then,” he said. “Pick it up, pick it up.”
    I already had my bundle in my hand, and Ned followed me with the flint and the iron. When I got on board I felt scared and funny. I thought these two little old legs was go’n buckle under me now for sure.
    The ferry pushed away from the landing out on the river, and it looked like none of it was real, like I was dreaming all this. I felt all funny and giddy and tired as I was I wanted to laugh, but I didn’t.
    “Where y’all headed?” the man in the black suit asked me. He didn’t sound like a Secesh at all. I had never heard nobody talk like him before.
    “Ohio,” I said.
    He was smoking a pipe. He jecked it out his mouth quick. I could hear when it hit against his teeth.
    “Ohio?” he said. “Y’all got people there? Ain’t that a bit far for just two children? That one over there, that’s you little bitty brother?”
    “Just a little boy I know,” I said. “We ain’t got no people. My mama been dead. Overseer killed her. Secesh killed his mama yesterday.”
    “Oh, that gang,” he said.
    “You know them?” I asked him.
    “Know of them,” he said. “Well, you don’t have to go to Ohio. I’ll find you a place to stay till you find somebody’ll take care you. Where you from?”
    I told him. I told him about Old Master reading the Proclamation to us and us starting out. Told him about the Secesh or patrollers who had killed the people. Even told him about Mr. Brown.
    “Well, you don’t have to go to Ohio, now,” he said. “And your friend Brown might not even be there. I’ll find you a place to stay till you find yourself a home. I still think the best thing for both of you is going back, though.”
    “We ain’t going back there, Master,” I said.
    “Well, I’ll find you a place to stay tonight,” he said. He looked at Ned holding the flint and the piece of iron. “I say, Little Man, what them rocks for?” he asked.
    “Fiyer,” Ned said.
    “I say,” the man said, and smoked on the pipe.
    It was pitch black on the river, but I could see lights on